Let me start at the beginning. I have loved flowers ever since I was a little girl. As a child, I would gather handfuls of garden flowers, wildflowers and, often, weeds and bring them home to my mom. I loved to see her face light up when I proudly presented my “gifts” to her. I have not out-grown this, and I often cut lilies and lilacs from my yard and bring them over to my mom’s house in the summertime.

A few months after I bought my first DSLR camera, I discovered my passion in photography. I came upon it by pure accident; it was on a whim I decided to walk into the local rose garden after a visit to the zoo with my family. The zoo is located in one of our city parks and as we were walking to a picnic table to eat dinner, I decided I wanted to go look at the roses. I still had my camera with me from the zoo so I thought I might as well take some pictures!

Something magical happened that evening. You know how in the movies they depict a magical scene with haze and little sparkles of light floating in the air and tinkling of chimes? It was that. I’m not kidding you! My childhood love of flowers was transforming into a love of photographing them.

Since then, no other subject gives me the joy and excitement I feel when photographing flowers. I have a hard time finding things to shoot in the cold winter months, but when spring rolls around the magic begins again. I like to call it my “Photography Season!” From March to October I’m in heaven!

I love to capture flowers in a unique way. Flowers are like little people. They each have a story to tell and I am there to communicate that story to the world. I look for creative angles, flattering light and interesting compositions that help me tell those stories.

My work isn’t complete until I bring my flower photos into Photoshop to add the finishing touches. I edit every single one of my flowers. My view on this is that I want these flowers to look as beautiful on screen and in print as I see them in my mind. Flowers are so beautiful to begin with, there’s not much for me to do with them in Photoshop. I do give them a foundation edit to start with, and then I add more creative edits to match my vision for them.

I love that one of my childhood loves has manifested itself into one of my grown-up loves! Photography and flowers to me are like two peas in a pod.

I love that I get to do this (for the majority of the year) and I feel so blessed to have found my passion in photography!